Remember when your favorite sweater got lost in a load of laundry, and the next time you saw it, it had shrunk into a miniature, blanket-textured doggy sweater?

The Felt Phenomenon

There's a name for this phenomenon: felting. And if you plan ahead, you can use the very same disastrous process as a design tool to create extraordinary results.

The process of felting raw fibers has been used for centuries. But felting knitwear (which is called "fulling") didn't hit the mainstream Western knitting community until the mid 1980s.

Felting expands and tightens fiber at the same time, essentially transforming the look and feel of most knitted garments.
Today, several talented designers -- especially Nancy Lindberg and Suzanne Pufpaff --- specialize in creating patterns for this medium.

If you don't believe it's possible to turn a huge, floppy, washcloth-like knitted item into a strong, structured hat or pair of weather-resistant mittens, you must try felting.